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Character Build: The Banshee

Tags: #Character Build Dual-Wield  #Character Build Shouts  #Character Build Mage Armor  #Race:Breton  #Rank:Recognized  #LeBlanc Builds 
  • Member
    December 19, 2015

    I was seeking inspiration for a new build concept and was looking through a list of weapons and armor and Windshear jumped out at me.  The name, and the effect, got me thinking and "banshee" popped into my head almost at once.  I began looking for air and wind type effects that could simulate a banshee and then how the banshee could function in the Skyrim world.  The seed was planted and my imagination took off from there.  So here is my build based on the classic Banshee.  I hope you enjoy playing this one.

    The Throat of the World is the highest point in all of Tamriel.  It resides in the southern portion of Skyrim and nestled at it's peak sits the Greybeard monestary, High Hrothgar.  Access to the peaks is dangerous.  Journeys take days, even weeks, traversing the Seven Thousand Steppes to reach the highest points of The Throat.  Very few souls ever undertake the journey willingly.  Even fewer ever return.

    Stories are told about strange, mystical clouds of snow and ice that churn around the mountainous passes of The Steppes.  Some  will say this is just an effect of the wind blowing through.  More knowledgeable scribes, however, will tell tale of banshees; creatures of the winds whose scream beckons a portent of doom for those unfortunate souls that hear the howl.

    The Banshee is one of the creatures of the wind, ripped from her spiritual domain atop The Throat of the World and made mortal. 

    BUILD BASICS

    Race: Breton (female)Stone: Lord
    Shrine: Talos
    Major Skills: Enchanting, One-Handed, Alteration, Destruction
    Minor Skills: Speech, Smithing, Conjuration, Restoration
    Shouts: Cyclone, Slow Time, Storm Call, Unrelenting Force, Whirlwind Sprint, Become Ethereal, Elemental Fury, Marked for Death
    Required Quests: Dark Brotherhood, Waking Nightmare, Main Quest, Agent of Mara
    Suggested Quests: College of Winterhold, Thieves Guild, Blessing of Dibella, The Companions

    GAMEPLAY

    The Banshee gathering the very air particles around her.

    You will progress through various levels as you regain your Banshee powers and become ever more powerful.  As the Banshee, you can decide to become a benevolent spirit or succumb to the evil in the world.  I will present the build as the former, but will give a build alternative should you wish to go the evil route.

    As a new Banshee, ripped into the world of mortal men, you are stripped of all but your most basic powers.  You have completely lost your Banshee voice.  Left to just crude devices you will rely on a one-handed weapon and a spell in your offhand to survive.  While you will have magic, it will not be your primary means of offense. 

    As you begin to regain your Voice, these Banshee Screams will enhance your offensive damage and your defensive abilities.  As you learn more about Skyrim you will then decide whether to go the good/neutral or the evil route and that will affect your gameplay as well.  That, however, is for you to ultimately decide how much impact it has on your decision.

    You will seek out Windshear for your primary weapon and use elemental infused cloaks of wind, rain and air for defensive and offensive support.  Mage Armor will give you protection as you wrap the very air around yourself and your very essence will give you a high resistance to magic as it flows though your very pores.

    Use the resources around you to make your trip through Skyrim easier.  The Mage's College, in Winterhold, can provide valuable training in magical skills as well as convenient access to purchase the spells you require to see your Banshee powers reborn.  The Dark Brotherhood sets you on the path to find the ultimate Banshee weapon.  Mara herself will bless you with magical resistance, another of your banshee abilities. 

    You will even take down dragons using their very essence to regain your Banshee voice.  As you become a full blown Banshee, albeit in mortal form, you will regain full use of your Banshee Screams and use your voice to crush your enemies.

    PERKS

    M: 3, H: 2, S: 1    Magicka to 350; Stamina to 150; Remainder to Health

    SKILLS

    Shouts are the foundation of this build, as befits a Banshee.  These shouts will mimic the power of all the elements controlled by the Banshee.  Just as the banshee's voice is a harbinger of doom, so shall your voice be in this build.  From a defensive standpoint we begin with Alteration and Destruction spells, utilizing Mage Armor spells and Cloak spells to boost your AR and to provide you with offensive and defensive cloak abilities.    Switching to the offensive side of things, we use One-handed as our primary attack skill and this will allow us to brandish Windshear, the ultimate power of the wind in the hands of a true Banshee.

    Moving into the nuances of the build, Enchanting will allow us to further enhance our protection or our offensive abilities and we tie Conjuration into this to gain soul gems to further our enchanting leveling.  We own the very air so have no need for conjured beings. 

    Lastly we take a few points in Restoration and Illusion as these trees will give us some added options for healing and then Aspect of Terror to improve our cloak damage.

    The air will envelop you in a healing embrace.

    GEAR

    Wearing the Robes of Vaermina

    The Banshee wears only basic robes to give form to her body.  Unencumbering boots, gloves and hats or circlets will complete the ensemble.  Vaermina's Robes and Dunmer Boots will be sought for your final wear.  The robes are stitched with the very essence of air reflected in the magical rune patterns that appear on the robes while the boots are able to be enchanted with a chest enchant; much more useful for an unarmored character than typical boot enchants.  Make sure you pick up all 20 robes just in case during the quest.  Using The Lord Stone will provide addition defense in combat, especially in the early going.

    You will use your elemental powers to cloak yourself in magical armor for additional defenses.  You will also use your magical enchantments to imbue your gear to enhance your abilities.  Fortify Alteration and Fortify Destruction will be primary enchantments utilized.  The Dunmer Boots give you a fifth piece of gear that can be enchanted with a Fortify Spell enchantment, however DO NOT enchant the Dunmer Boots until you get the Extra Effect perk.  I recommend three Fortify Alteration and two Fortify Destruction pieces while leveling and you can carry two extra robes with you to have the second enchantment and also a Fortify Restoration robe if needed.  Once you get Extra Effect then put both Alteration and Destruction on each piece of gear up to your personal playing cap.

    You will use only silver jewelry; light and airy like your spirit.  And you prefer Sapphires, blue like the snow and ice of your home among the Steppes.

    The Banshee...yes she can fly!

    We will use one handed weapons imbued with the speed of the very air you command, effected with your voice.  Prior to unlocking your Elemental Fury scream you may wish to use an elemental enchantment for damage boosts.  We do take points into dual wielding to further enhance our damage in combat.

    You will ultimately use a weapon of air, Windshear, as your primary weapon.  It is said to contain the essence of your kind writhing within it's molded form. When using an unenchanted dagger in your offhand, Elemental Fury will still work to increase your attack speed.  Rundi's Dagger is a strong option for an early game off hand and is easily found near Winterhold.  Cicero drops a nice ebony dagger during the DB chain that can work later in the game.  It's recommended to carry two identical unenchanted daggers for hotkey purposes.  Another offhand weapon that would be of interest is Keening.  This would be a good enchanted dagger especially in the early going and the name is definitely fitting for a banshee.

    Regarding dual wielding and hot keys: get two identical daggers for your offhand.  Hotkey 1 should be Windshear, HK 2 should be your dagger(s) and HK3-8 should be the spells you want to utilize.  If you arm a spell it automatically goes to your offhand.  To get your dagger back, hit HK 2 TWICE, thus equipping a dagger in each hand...then hit HK 1 which will arm Windshear back in your primary hand.  A little convoluted but it works and equips pretty fast.

    For miscellaneous gear we will use the Amulet of Talos to offset our cooldowns for shouts; the shrine will further reduce this and is recommended.  Using both will decrease your Voice cooldown by 40%.  You may wish to consider unlocking the shout reduction even further, bringing your cooldown for your Voice to an astounding 80%.  See section 1.3 in the link for details.

    COMBAT

    Attacking Jyrik Gauldurson with cloak and claw.  Elemental Fury increases her attack speed, blurring her weapons.

    Combat is a pretty straightforward affair as The Banshee.  Cast a protective shell of air around you, hardening your skin as if it were armor itself.  Then call the wind to envelop you and harness the elemental energies you desire, be it flame, snow or lightning, as an additional barrier against your foes. 

    In the early going, cast fire from your left hand towards your opponent as you move into range, or reach out and rip the very soul from your enemy using Soul Trap to draw your opponent to you; like a whisper across the way, enticing them to come and play...  This spell is also useful for ranged pulls if you want to try to separate a group of enemies.

    When you regain your voice, and are armed with Windshear and your Elemental Fury shout, you will focus solely on melee combat.  You can utilize your very voice to chill the blood of men and mer.  Will you bend the air to give your arm supernatural speed?  Will you weaken your enemies very essence and make him succumb to you?  Will the very air slow your opponent to a crawl while you continue to move at full speed?  You have the power and you use it at will.

    Elemental Fury will be your primary voice used in combat.  Even enchanted, Windshear is still affected by the shout as long as you have an unenchanted dagger in your offhand.  This magical weapon of the winds harnesses all the Banshee's power and staggers her enemy with hurricane force behind every blow; rendering all before her powerless.  Still, you may prefer to save Windshear for special occasions and play with your prey at other times, pouncing with the playfulness of a kitten hell-bent on destruction like a cat seizing a bird.  "Fun" consists of an elementally enchanted sword or even a Banshee-infused sword that gulps the very life from her foes.

    All aspects of your Voice will come into play in combat however, it's up to you to decide which one fits the role at the time.  Multiple enemies closing in?  Use your very breath to push them back and stagger them all; then leap at one and end them quickly, making the odds more fair.  Too many enemies or too much damage? Then turn into the very air itself and laugh while they flail away futilely.  While thusly entertained, drink a healing potion; or speed away on a carpet of wind and cast a heal spell while they chase you down.

    The Banshee pushes away an enemy mage by summoning the musty crypt air as her fist of rage!

    SHOUTS

    Shouts, or the Voice of the Banshee, will be a primary factor in the build.  I'll spend a little time discussing each shout we will use during playthrough.

    Unrelenting Force: This can be used as the Force of Air to pummel enemies and knock them away from you.

    Whirlwind Sprint: A defensive shout to put distance between you and an opponent; best used during an enemies Power Attack.  This gives you a few moments to cast a heal, refresh armor or drink potions.

    Marked for Death: The true voice of a Banshee.  The Banshee's Scream is a harbinger of death and doom.  The enemy feels his life slipping away and finds himself less able to defend himself against your attack.

    Become Ethereal: Another defensive use as you become Air itself and watch enemies flail helplessly in their attempts to attack you.  Again, you gain a few moments to heal or refresh spells.

    Elemental Fury: An offensive scream used to gain the gale force winds of a storm in your attack.  This can be used even with Windshear as long as a non-enchanted weapon is in your off hand.

    Slow Time: When faced with overwhelming numbers, use the very air to boost your speed and overwhelm your opponents as they seem frozen in place.

    Cyclone: Call down a Tornado to devestating effect and allow you to turn the tide of battle. 

    Storm Call: Your most powerful shout able to kill and wreak havok on a battlefield.  Only able to be used outdoors.

    GOOD OR EVIL

    The build itself is presented as a good (or at best neutral) approach to the Banshee.  However you could choose to join the vampires via the Dawnguard quest line.  The Vampire Lord form would actually allow you to fly and Vampiric Grip becomes the wind doing your bidding to throw your opponents around.  And Life Drain is nothing but the Banshee's Kiss, draining the very essence from mortal men. 

    The Bat Form ability would give another wind style simulation, like Whirlwind Sprint, that would fit into the gameplay extremely well.  The Bats ability to have bats cloak around you would be another cloak form as well.  However,  stay away from Summon Gargoyle for the whole summoning thing.

    The drawback is it could tend to go to heavy on the VL form and away from using Windshear and your Banshee spells/voice so you would have to take care to balance this.

    NOTES

    We use latent magic resistance through the race ability coupled with Lord Stone + Agent of Mara + Alteration taking 2/3 points in magic resistance to achieve the 85% Magic Resistance cap.

    Getting your shout cooldown to 80% can be done using the beast form from the Companion quest line.  We will not actively use the form in the build but only to attain this threshold.  Information is in section 1.3, HERE.

    Getting that first point of Mage Armor in the Alteration tree is vital to your survival.  Work on getting this right away for the armor bonus.

    My appreciation to the Workshop Gang for their help in this build.  I had a lot of fun doing it as my first "raw" build based on something I hadn't played before.  I think it's got some unique twists and hope you enjoying giving it a play in your game.  I'd like to add in a post-posting thanks to Curse for taking the time to mentor me a bit on my builds...I can't thank you enough for taking the time to do that.  Also, Curse fixed up the main logo to remove the site link (my skills are non-existent with that kind of stuff) so I agree it looks tons better now. 

    Thank you for checking out The Banshee.  Please take a look at my other builds at LeBlanc Builds

  • Member
    December 19, 2015

    This is amazing! One of my favorite classes that mainly uses shouts well done

  • Member
    December 19, 2015
    I think you did great John. I like the addition of the option evil section. Well thought out. Great screenshots. +1 Any thoughts on the cyclone shout?
  • Member
    December 19, 2015
    Once you get it it's a great opening attack because it goes through your opponents and dishes out damage so they're already coming into melee range with you pre-wounded.
  • Member
    December 19, 2015

    Awesome stuff, I love a good shouting character +1 from me.

  • Member
    December 20, 2015

    Since its all about wind and air, I can imagine it gets to the Cloud District quite often, my respects.

  • Member
    December 20, 2015
    You know...never even thought about that. Touché! Lol
  • Member
    December 20, 2015

    Hmm, just reading a new tip that went up today on cloaks.  Looks like if I go three points into Illusion to get Aspect of Terror it could further bump up cloak damage.  Since that's a key part of the build, these three points moves the level cap to 50 to attain all perks.  Probably worth doing.  Going to play around with that some and reread the tips.  If I change it I'll add the perks and put in a new perk update.

  • Member
    December 21, 2015

    Its up and looking good. Congratulations on releasing another fine piece work of art. You playtested it, did research and did several experiments to let this build shine through and through, then you brought it out to the public. The methodology of it all. . . This should be how all builds that people put up should be like. It is genius. May this lead to more success!

    Never knew about that tip. I knew the Aspect of Terror perk boosted up the cap in which fear spells effect people but never exactly by how much in addition to the perk increasing damage for cloak spells. I'll be sure to test that out sometime soon. Thanks. I have tier level of spells for both cloaks and Illusion spells from my mod. But, this is still a great find.

  • Member
    December 21, 2015

    Well, turns out that tip may not be accurate.  I'm following the blog tip that was posted, it's here in the vault.  We'll see what is finally decided as "official" lol.